Mandy's Musings

Monday, 9 July 2012

Today I am delighted to have the wonderful Cathie Dunn, historical fiction and romantic suspense author over for a chat.

Welcome,
Cathie, can you tell us what or who inspires your writing?

Thank you, Mandy, for hosting me
today. I’m thrilled to be here.

From an early age onwards, I’ve
devoured books. I was a huge fan of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five and Adventure
series and loved Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking (and her independence).
Their books inspired my love of adventures.

Later, I discovered the romantic
suspense novels of Victoria Holt and Barbara Erskine, the dramatic novels of
Daphne du Maurier and the wonderfully exotic historical novels by M M Kaye. By
that time, I knew I wanted to write, and historical and romantic suspense /
adventure was to be ‘my’ genre.

Have
you always written or is it a more recent development?

I started jotting down ‘ideas’ in my
late teens, half-hearted attempts that ended up in a drawer. I nagged my mother
into buying me a used typewriter and the stories developed. For many years, I
didn’t do much more about them, until, in my late 20s, I started all over
again. Since then, I’ve completed a Creative Writing course at Lancaster
University, as well as short historical courses at other universities. I joined
writing and critique groups and learned the value of peer feedback and support,
and their brutal honesty. It helped hone my skills in terms of both writing and
critical editing.

Which
do you enjoy most and why, historical fiction or romantic suspense?

I love both, in different ways, both
as a writer and reader. Historical fiction allows you to focus primarily on
historical events - both real and fictional. I love writing about political
issues, battles and campaigns; I find them fascinating to research. My
favourite authors in that field are Sharon Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick.

In romantic suspense, you focus less
on the secondary events, but instead on the characters and the intrigue. As a
reader, you ‘feel’ the story more, you sense the tension, you experience what
the characters go through. You find yourself reading faster and faster, keen to
get through it to know what’s about to happen. In writing romantic suspense,
you ‘show’ more than you do in generic historical fiction.

Your
most recent work is the romantic suspense novella Silent Deception, can
you tell us a little about that and where it's available?

Back in early May, I spotted a call
for submissions for suspense novellas from a major romance publisher. The
deadline was two weeks later. I took the challenge.

Trying my best, I managed a first
draft in that time, but it wasn’t anywhere near the standard I’d wanted to
submit. So I decided to self-publish the novella, re-wrote it, ran it past my
critique partners who duly tore it to shreds, and eventually I ended up with a
version I was happy with.

Silent Deception is a romantic
suspense set in Victoria Cornwall, the first time I used a location I haven’t
visited. Yet. The novella is currently available as an ebook on Amazon only.

What is
the most useful piece of advice you have ever been given in life, regarding
writing or anything else?

What an interesting question. I
think it would be: ‘Be true to yourself.’ This can be taken both for life in
general as well as for writing.

I’ve seen writers change their style
to try fit into a specific publisher’s box, only to fail again and again.
Sometimes, you can’t force it. If it doesn’t sound like your natural voice, it
doesn’t ring true. Go back, start again, and listen to your intuition. Often,
writers can find their inspiration again and discover a small change can make a
difference.

What
is the one piece of useful advice you would give to an aspiring writer?

Don’t give up! This business can
break you, so you’ll need to develop a thick skin. (I know, easier said than
done. I’ve been there.) Not finding the right publisher, low sales, poor
reviews all put a damper on our feeling of proud achievement as our book is
released.

Provided you novel is well-written,
edited many times over, proofread, with a quality cover and interesting plot,
you should not feel bad about it at all. It’s an incredible feat, so continue
to feel proud about it.

Over the years, I’ve heard many
writer friends ask: ‘What’s the point? I might just as well give up.’

My response to that is: ‘You love to
write? People enjoy to read your books? Then that’s all that matters.’

Are
you working on anything at the moment?

I’m currently working on two
projects. One is a medieval Scottish romance novella, the other a full-length
contemporary suspense set in Idaho, US. Switching from historical to
contemporary has its challenges, but I’m ready to face them. And then, of
course, I must get to the sequel to Dark Deceit.